Sunday, December 19, 2010

Another Shining Moment

The U.S. House passed the "Dream Act" on Dec. 8, 216-198, mostly along partisan lines (though some 48 blue dog Democrats voted against it). The legislation would provide legal residency to undocumented young people who graduate from high school, complete two years of college or military service and have no criminal record.

Naturally, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx voted against the bill. What you may not know is that local authorities say that a young woman who grew up on the Foxx estate might have benefitted from its provisions. The young woman's parents worked for the Foxxes. Meanwhile, she graduated from Watauga High School with honors and attempted to enroll in Caldwell Community College. She was rejected because she did not have citizenship papers.

Obviously, she needs to be punished for eternity over something she had no control over.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Republicans -- assisted, incidentally, by NC Democratic Senator Kay Hagan -- voted not to even take up the "Dream Act."

A compilation of comment on the action taken by Senate Republicans, from this morning's gas-bag shows:
NBC's ANDREA MITCHELL: The dumbest thing that the Republicans did was the DREAM Act. … that is going to turn out to be a real setback for Republicans because these are people who wanted to serve in the military and get educated and contribute to the society.

NEWARK, NJ, MAYOR CORY BOOKER: To tell people who've been through high school, high school presidents going on to college some of the best brains who have no relation to their home country. This is crazy. It's hurting America.

GOP STRATEGIST MARK McKINNON: The Republican Party has got to recognize Hispanics are the huge growing demographic in this country .… We gotta send the right signal to Hispanics in this country in addition to the fact that it's the right policy.

FOX NEWS' JUAN WILLIAMS: The one thing that I regret … is the defeat of the DREAM Act for the immigrants and the immigrant kids. I just think, again, Republicans play politics with real lives, real people, real aspirations and they leave the immigration issue on the table when that's the real business of the American people.

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